April 2011
32 posts
Still life of a lunch I last had in 1992
Down in the Delta, where I’m from, there was a restaurant called Abide’s, then called Gino’s, and I don’t know whether it’s there anymore. It was just a fast food grease spot, but it was hometown-owned and operated. When I was a kid, the only tacos I liked came from Abide’s. On the weekend, if I was lucky, I might get a lunch of two tacos from Abide’s,...
March 2011
33 posts
The one-time pad of the heart
Just got home, and it has been a long day. Again today I can offer only more doodles based purely on the fact that I love holding a swoopy brush pen. At least I am researching something more elaborate I want to draw.
She knows her lithics though, which is more than I...
I’m excited for the release of the next book in Jean Auel’s “Earth’s Children” series. Why? Because I’ve grown up with them, they were an important influence in the early teenage years of many young American girls, and they’re terrible. Auel’s work is an anti-favorite of mine. I frequently create pre-agricultural societies in my work, and my...
Nunc pro tunc II
Again it TOTALLY COUNTS if I doodled something on what is technically yesterday, but fell asleep next to a needy dachshund by total accident.
In any case, I was just dicking around with the fact that I have a new brush-style pen, as follows.
Misc. doodles VII
I was going to draw more MM robots by way of the Megas’ songs – the tragic Airman, the egotistical Metalman, the lovesick Flashman – but then I got a bulletin informing me that I was in my thirties so I didn’t. It came too late to stop another sketch of dark!Mega Man, though.
Watercolors, though! Grownups do watercolors all the time, right? I’m just picking them up again...
This kind of embarrassment you don't use up all at...
I found some old sketchbooks, from high school right through law school. Most of it is too personal to make sense or too ridiculous to inflict upon you, but I take great comfort in seeing that I have, in fact, been a worse artist. Here are some things from six or seven years ago, which are faintly presentable.
I found an old eljay icon that I never was happy with, because I liked it but it...
This is actually one of the least nerdy ideas I...
Another quick impression from a song — and, I openly admit, the first robot I’ve ever drawn — “The Will of One” by the Protomen, the brilliant rock opera based on the Mega Man franchise. (Link is to an amateur AMV for good audio quality — live performances also on the ‘tube, but audio quality is low.)
In other news, I continue to suck with color. It was...
Your turn to hear the stone, and then your turn to...
A quick impression from “The Statue Got Me High,” one of my favorite songs. If it is about anything in particular, I hope I never know what it is, because it’s so evocative. Here I just wanted to try texturing stone with graphite, and although it’s not impressive, it looks better in person.
It’s unfinished here — I suspected that I was going to ruin the...
Prep School Memwah
Well ain’t you something, Spanky. Nonetheless he’s got a point, and what’s more, he makes for a segue. I went to Andover for all of high school, and I saved my diary files, which are detailed and hideously embarrassing. For years now, on and off, I have been playing with the idea of doing one of them prep school memoirs based thereupon, but I never seriously worked on it. ...
Thirteen hours straight today
Just got home. Afraid I only have on offer a Post-it I found lying around, doodled on a happier day. I vaguely remember thinking how cool it would be to do a man’s face with natural-signs for eyes, but clearly that never happened. Join us next time, won’t you?
Considerably less charming than anything in Axe...
Nonetheless, reading an article about Axe Cop reminded me of the first villain I ever created. I was in third grade — 1987 or so — and I constantly wrote and illustrated little books about magical adventures. All of the stories were forgettable and forgotten, but I remember that I was very proud of my villain. Her name was Evilia. (And is that stupider than Evil-lyn? No. It is...
It's a Secret to Everybody
When I was a little girl, I was fascinated by this moment in the original LoZ, and always wondered about the story behind it. I supposed the Molblin must have been a bitter man.
I’ve never gotten into the Legend of Zelda universe outside of the first two games, but this has stayed with me, even though I have long been aware that the story behind it is just that they wanted to hide 50...
He of the Great Knife
I’ve been trying to draw ol’ Pyramid Head from Silent Hill for ages,* and it’s deceptively difficult, but the day draws to a close and something must be shown for it. I finally cribbed shamelessly from figure structures by Jack Hamm, although I am pretty sure Jack Hamm never drew someone wearing an apron of human skin per se.
* You might well ask: WHY.
Big old Friday night chez Elena
You were supposed to get something spooky and imaginative tonight, but I had plumbing problems for about two hours. Plus angst.
Have you ever had plumbing problems and an anxiety attack? I don’t recommend it. Neither of them helps the other. You would think that all the trouble cancels itself out in some kind of Zen mindfulness, but mainly you feel like your whole life is a low-flow...
"I'm not a monster, Tom -- well, technically I am...
An office-born doodle of one of my favorite song lines of all time, from Jonathan Coulton’s “Re: Your Brains.”
My aching head
Sketched for ages and this is all I got worth showing — a mental image of being an old woman on the internet, believing whatever fool thing that they’re telling my generation on the internet those days.
Reblog if you want your followers to ask you...
Oh why the heck not.
Random childhood memory, 1988
Being fussed at by a camp counselor for running off from the group and not having my rain gear. No particular reason I recalled this, but sometimes I draw a face and say: hey! It’s that one lady, from that thing!
Not happy with this one, though. Shouldn’t have tossed off the figure proportions in ink.
Also -- check out this fanworks benefit auction...
I will draw you a drawring of your very own, for the price of one small donation to Japan. Click here for bidding.
Couple of ritual masks right quick
I don’t have a link, but I understand that Neanderthal remains have been found in H. sapiens sites in contexts suggesting that the remains were kept as trophies. Naturally, it seemed to me that Neanderthal hair would have been considered a potent magical item, especially since it was probably copper or gold, which is not an original sapiens trait. It would have been highly sought after for...
Storyboarding your favorite song, sure, that's a...
When I was little, my parents played a lot of Planxty — traditional Irish music — and I eventually forgot to pretend I didn’t like it. One of my favorite songs was “Cunla,” “Cuanla,” or “The Frieze Breeches” (sean nos style — a cappella Gaelic version). It’s extremely cheerful and catchy, but it’s also slightly menacing. ...
Another Meretseger
With a bonus lick from a small dog on one side of the page, for God knows what reason.
What’s fascinating about Egyptian figure drawing is that its trademark stylized, awkward, angular appearance is not a result of any lack of skill on the part of the draftsmen. It was for magical and religious reasons. Any aspect of the figure that was not depicted, either itself or as a perfectly...
Stumbled on in after watching a movie till late
And I still had to draw something; so I just started listening to the carnivorous plants again. You know, like you do.
A secret singing self
Unkempt, chunky, and full of grand lamentations.
I am always listening.
Well, this'll have to do for sweet
It got late and I got tired and I haven’t got much to show for it except a doodle of Meretseger or Meresger, She Who Loves Silence, the Lady of the Peak.
Keeping it classy
Lately I was brought to mind of the Marquise of Dai, who spent some instructive time in my nightmares when I was but a girl.
Oh man, lookit this place. I promise to post something sweet tomorrow.
Eu-an, eu-an, eu-oi-oi-oi-oi
This morning, one of the first headlines I read before caffeine was “World Freaks Out At Sight of Naked, Revenge-Seeking Woman.” It is of course actually lame, and nowhere near as interesting as the first thing I thought of, which was decidedly more red-figure.
Future archaeologists
I think about them a lot.
(And yes, I need to practice scenery. I’m working on a scenery drawing because I don’t usually do them, but dang, does it take forever.)
Too pretty outside today to concentrate much
I had been wanting to practice two things today: upset, upsetting expressions, and the folds of fabric as worn. In this doodle I did both. The folds of the quilt aren’t that great, but I like the expression.
Just a little something from off the top of the...
Again with the carnivorous flowers. It’s the least unpleasant thing I’ve created all day.
I was concerned that this tumblr wasn't creepy...
For some time now, following the genesis of Lynda Barry’s One! Hundred! Demons!, I have been curating my own demon collection. Most of them can’t be pictured at my current level of skill, but I will get there. Here’s one I’ve drawn lately.
The Armature, or the Wire Man. This is his least upsetting manifestation, even when viewed from the front, as at right.
The...
One thing today, I am afraid
Often I think of overheard snatches of mystery conversations. Sometimes they’re almost as interesting as the ones I really overheard.
A weaksauce assortment today; nonetheless --...
At times when I’m busy these days, the urge to sit down and work on a new idea for a writing or a sketch project makes me feel like I’ve been permanently whipstitched to my seventeen-year-old self and she will not shut up.
This isn’t great, but I post it as a way of admitting that I am still the kind of weeaboo who secretly believes that she would have rocked a naginata and a...
